The Obsoletes

Rate: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Author: Simeon Mills
Published: May 14, 2019
Series: N/A
Goodreads

Thank you so much to Skybound books for providing an ARC of The Obsoletes by Simeon Mills in exchange for an honest review via Edelweiss.

Set in the 1990s, The Obsoletes is about two robot brothers. The small town they live in is robophobic and the two must navigate their freshman year without being discovered and killed with toasters by the townspeople.

The story was good although I sometimes have trouble reminding myself the characters here are freshman high school students but then, the protagonist is a robot so that’s reasonable. I also love how it described the parental instincts Daryl formed over the course of time and how it clashes with his role as a brother to Kanga.

What I didn’t like is how selfish Kanga is. How he, for some reason, couldn’t see the efforts done by Daryl to take care of him and their family. Even at the end. I hated how he had that kind of ending although Daryl seems to be happy with his and I think it fit perfectly for him.

I’m giving it three though as I found myself not connecting to the story. The story is about basketball and I’m not really a player myself so I didn’t understand those parts. It was also unnecessarily long. We had flashbacks about Daryl and his family but instead of making me closer and connect to him, it made me distant. It didn’t make me root for him. Some of the flashbacks were unnecessary and I think dragged the story. It also even made me hate Kanga more. 

Other than that, this was a really good read and I’d recommend this to everyone, especially if you love basketball! The concept of robots in this world was also a great take and who doesn’t love some walk on memory lane?